The Spring Solstice could not have been a better time for the first thunder and lightning storms to arrive on the Highveld of South Africa. After a very long and dry winter, you can hear both man and nature breathe a sigh of relief. With more rain apparently on the way we can only hope that we have a good rain season this coming Summer, it sure is very much needed. For a big portion of South Africa it is now time to start unplugging modems and computers or risk losing them through a lightning strike.
The First Thunderstorm of 2009. Lightning, thunder and rain, there is quite simply nothing quite like it. From Mitchell Krog's Lightning Photography Portfolios. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)
Just Posted! Our review of the Sigma DP2. Sigma was the first company brave enough to put a large sensor in a compact body and its DP1 was an interesting, if flawed creation. The DP2 is its second attempt - featuring a 41mm equivalent F2.8 lens and a series of improvements derived from the company's experiences with the DP1. However, it is no longer the only compact camera claiming to offer 'the power of DSLR' so can the DP2 see off the interlopers and does its unique sensor design give it hidden depths?
Just Posted: Our preview sample gallery of shots taken with the Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR, current holder of the 'world's smallest 10x zoom camera' and the first model to sport the new 10 megapixel version of the new Super CCD EXR sensor. We've had an F70 EXR for a few days now and managed to find a break in the clouds long enough to produce a quick gallery of images taken in a wide variety of lighting conditions, using all three EXR modes.
Just Posted: Our preview sample gallery from the Canon PowerShot S90. We've just got hold of a production version of this latest photographers' compact, so, given the apparent level of interest, have put together a preview samples gallery. Canon made a big play of its 'high sensitivity' 10 megapixel sensor so we've made sure we've tried it at a range of ISO settings, and have included a couple of low-light portraits under challenging tungsten lighting.
Samyang Optics, the Korean manufacturer of industrial optics and photographic lenses has announced a 14mm F2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical super wide-angle lens. It is designed for full-frame cameras, but works with APS-C cameras as well. It features two ED, one hybrid aspherical and one glass aspherical lens element. The lens offers an impressive 114° field of view on full frame cameras and 92.5° on APS-C cameras. It will be available from November 2009 in Canon, Nikon, Sony and Pentax mounts.
Panasonic has posted firmware updates for its DMC-GH1 and DMC-G1 Micro Four-Thirds cameras. Both updates improve autofocus performance in low contrast conditions and the stability of auto exposure (AE) for the recently released Panasonic Leica 45mm F2.8 Macro lens. The GH1 firmware v1.2 also decreases the AF operation sound of the 20mm F1.7 pancake lens for quieter video recording.
Panasonic has released a firmware update for its Lumix G Vario 45-200mm F4.0-5.6 OIS Micro Four Thirds lens. Version 1.1 enhances several aspects of the lens's operation, including continuous autofocus while shooting stills, and autofocus and image stabilization performance in movie mode.
Pentax's K-x offers an awful lot of K-7 features in what is essentially the same body as the K2000 (K-m). In fact, its high specification and low price are most reminiscent of the much-loved K200D, which could make this a welcome addition to the upper-entry-level market. We were able to borrow a pre-production model so that we could look beyond the various color options to see just what this latest little Pentax offers.
Germano-Ukrainian specialist lens maker Hartblei has announced a medium format camera designed with a 35mm lens mount. The Hartblei CAM can mount any digital or film medium format back up to 4.5x6cm and will be available in Canon EF, Nikon F or Sony Alpha mounts. The company is working to develop the EF-mount version so that it can electronically control the apertures on Canon's latest 17mm and 24mm TS-E lenses. Mounting the Nikkor 14-24mm F2.8, either on the native Nikon version on the EF mount version with an adapter, gives a viewing angle of 135°.
Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5. These are final versions of updates which were originally posted as ‘release candidates’ on the Adobe Labs site, and are now available for immediate download. Both provide additional Raw support for Nikon D300S, Nikon D3000, Panasonic DMC-GF1 and Olympus E-P1. Although support is offered for Panasonic DMC-FZ35, it doesn’t extend to the Japanese and European version of the camera (the FZ38). In addition, the ACR update also includes corrections for sensors with non-conventional color filter arrays (as introduced in the most recent DNG specification).
Olympus has released a firmware update for its E-P1 Micro Four Thirds camera. Version 1.1 improves the camera operation in Continuous AF mode (C-AF). The company has also posted firmware updates for the E-P1's kit lenses: the M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 and the M. Zuiko Digital 17mm 1:2.8 pancake lens. The updates promise to improve the autofocus operation of both the lenses. Firmware updates can be downloaded via the Olympus Master/Studio software.
SanDisk has released a series of Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards with the super-fast read and write speeds of up to 90MB/s. The line supercedes the Extreme IV range and will start shipping this week in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities at a MSRP ranging from $300 to $800. The company has also released another line CF and SDHC cards called the Extreme series (replacing the Extreme III series) offering transfer speeds of up to to 60MB/s and 30 MB/s respectively that will be available from 8GB to 32GB with their price ranging from $130 to $375.
Carl Zeiss has announced the price and availability of the Canon-mount version of its 18mm F3.5 lens. The 'ZE-mount' version of the Distagon T* 3.5/18 super-wide angle lens was first shown in March at the Photo Imaging Expo in Tokyo and will be available in Autumn 2009 for a suggested retail price of €1049.
Novoflex has announced prices for eleven adapters for the Micro Four Thirds standard, including Pentax K, Nikon F and Sony Alpha adapters with built-in aperture control rings. The adapters provide only a mechanical connection between the lens and the body but retain automatic metering for aperture priority mode and allow focusing to infinity. All should be in stock in the US by October, according to the US distributor. Click through for US and European recommended prices.
